The President's Own - Marine Band

Today we were privileged to hear this great band at the new Enterprise (AL) High School Performing Arts Center (auditorium).  It was our first visit to this new building and it's beautiful - and so big.

What a great performance.  The program had a great variety of music, including 3 of my favorite marches.
The first one, "King Cotton", I played in the Elba High School Band in the early 1950s.  Then there was John Phillip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever".  At end of the program they played the Armed Forces Medley and asked veterans to stand for their service song.  Enterprise being a military retiree town had many people standing for their branch of service. For an encore, the moderator stepped to the microphone and asked everybody to join in and sing "God Bless America ".  We sang it through twice.

The moderator, a mezzo soprano, sang two selections from the opera Carmen.  She was great!  She also had a great personality as she announced each of the selections before the band played them.

James loved band music, especially John Phillip Sousa marches.  I kept thinking about him throughout the concert, and how he would have been trying to direct the band from his seat.